Pew
by theweepingblade
Summary: Collection of rainy - day drabbles, leading up the spectacular final event, complete with pop princesses, polar bears, mechanical squirrels and one festive non-denominational holiday extravaganza. After all, it is Artemis, and he's a genius. hollySHORTS.
1. You Are It

To resist was to express your command, your superiority over something, or someone. That was something Artemis knew very well. To resist was to quell your inner voice and inner tempting niggling at the base of your skull, and waltz out of a situation with your held high and pride largely intact. Yet, Artemis would still turn around, spinning around his office chair, to glance at that diminutive elf sitting cross-legged and pouty on a couch.

Holly caught Artemis glance, and with a widening of her round eyes and a quiver of her bottom lip, she knew Artemis was hers.

Artemis sighed, turning off his computer. "Fine, I shall play tag with you. But only this once."


	2. Noia

Paranoia was more than fear. Fear is when your heart rises and your hackles tense and mind is racing, throwing incomprehensible babble at you. But paranoia is when you can't even babble. Foaly knew paranoia well. His life, his livelihood was based on his paranoia, that somewhere, somehow, some pixie hacker or some obsessed human (Foaly's mind always drifted to Artemis when he thought about obsessive humans, though he was not quite sure why.) was digging through his files, his security.

Compulsively, he ran a system scan of Haven for the sixth time in an hour, his fingers furtively tapping on his keyboard and his eyes darting over the files flashing across his monitor.

Holly frowned, looking at Artemis. "You think we should tell Foaly about the monitoring system you put in his computer?"

Artemis watched Foaly fidget from his laptop.

"Nah."

**I'm-not-watching-you**

-**theweepingblade**


	3. Astronomical Dry Cleaning Bills

Artemis knew what a canter was. Moving at an easy gallop, he led his horse down the trail. Sometimes Artemis wished his life was more like a canter, a slow, steady, calm progression toward an eventual end. A life where he could just walk and enjoy the scenery (robbing people only occasionally). Artemis's life moved at a speed far from a leisurely walk. From the time his fate became entwined with a race of ground dwelling magic users, Artemis knew his life was most definitely not a canter.

However, Artemis could not conjure the proper metaphor to describe it.

Artemis's horse suddenly buckled from underneath him, kicking rider off in a violent snap of legs. Artemis landed very neatly in a puddle of mud. The horse, spooked, whinnied and bellowed.

Holly unshielded herself from the horse's path, a smirk alight on her lips. "I think your life is kind of like that."

Artemis could not help but agree.

**that-mud-will-take-forever-to-wash-out**

**-theweepingblade  
**


	4. Dry Cleaning Is For Non Genius

Thieving was a delicate operation. There was nothing to be left for consideration, no hanging variables, no decimal points rounded to the wrong digit.

Holly had one of the few passes to Foaly's lab. It was one of the few times that Foaly was not in his office, but Holly was sure that camera's were present. Several eyes were pointed to the lab's door, and provided a live feed to Foaly's phone. Was the door slid open, Holly threw a small ball into the lab, and the camera eyes instantly set upon the rolling child toy.

Holly darted in and darted out. Artemis waited expectantly.

"Is this it?"

Artemis nodded, thrusting the small package into his jacket pocket. He made sure that Holly could not read the label: Dry Cleaning Powder.

**robin-hood-needs-to-look-good-too**

**-theweepinglbade**


	5. The Color Of Coffee

**I think it's time for me to give a thanks to everyone. Thanks for reviewing. Thanks for reading. Thanks for allowing me to shamelessly copy your ideas.**

The ice cream machine was Foaly's idea. After tedious set up and operation, Artemis sat with two scoops of slowly melting blueberry ice cream. Holly sat opposite him with two scoops of slowly melting coffee ice cream.

They both eyed their own ice cream, and then wistfully at each others'. This happened for several minutes, whilst they both absently stirred their ice cream.

Finally, Artemis spooned a scoop of his blueberry to Holly's bowl, and Holly returned a scoop of her coffee ice cream. Artemis looked at the bowl of ice cream before him, one half hazel, one half blue, and looked at Holly.

They caught each other's gaze.

Then Holly looked down at her own blue and hazel ice cream, and thought something seemed awfully familiar.

**coffee-blueberry-won't-taste-very-good-will-it?**

**-theweepingblade  
**


	6. Opportunist

**A/N: Thanks for all reviews, it's what keeps me writing. I decided I owed you a slightly longer chapter. I'm thinking about making a 'full length' story in the same style as these drabbles later. **

Holly would never understand snow. Her life was spent her entire life in the weather-less solitude of Haven. The few times she had seen snow, especially in that adventure in the Arctic, she never took time to actually ponder it.

White, soft, cold flakes of water drifting to the ground; it seemed impossible.

"Ms. Short, are you finding the weather to your liking?"

Artemis joined Holly on the couch, and together they looked out to the flurry outside. The snowflakes danced in an endless jig, swirling and covering the ground in layers.

"It's beautiful."

Artemis was not one for rash decisions. He had several more scientific articles to publish online by tomorrow, and he was wearing a new cashmere sweater. But the snow, he could not be certain when it would arrive again.

"Let us examine this meteorological curiosity outside." It was an offer that Holly was prepared to accept. Together they walked from the warm safety of Fowl Manor to the land that was cold, windy, magical.

Holly quickly found herself up to her waist in the powdery snow, nearly blinded by the storm. Holly grasped Artemis's hand, clutching it for safety as the storm threatened to blow her small frame away.

"Do you think we should go inside?", inquired Artemis.

Holly was an impulsive thinker. Each gust of wind battered and chilled her body. Each nerve she possessed begged her, screamed at her to leave this blizzard.

But holding Artemis's hand while she stood in a fantastic, bright winter world, she could not be certain when the chance would arrive again.

**baby-it's-cold-outside**

**-theweepingblade  
**


End file.
